Day 1 of the new job

I made breakfast in the morning and was getting ready to make the boys' lunch. But I couldn't find the chick peas for the hummus. They were there the night before! I looked all over for them and was starting to get very frustrated- who took the chick peas and why?! What would I do for their lunch? Nearly in tears, I loudly ask “Who took my chick peas?” At Barry's* command, a few boys get up to help me look, but they don't stay long and everyone goes back to cleaning and getting ready for school. Why aren't they helping me? What am I going to do? What will the boys have for lunch? This is horrible!!!

I wake up...I was only dreaming. I didn't sleep well last night. I was too worried about making sure I had the right food and enough of it. I was worried about not waking up in time to get the coffee started and the granola finished. So, I barely slept. But the morning went well. The granola and yogurt were good, though there were no leftovers (what will I do for leftover night??). Things got cleaned up and I went about making the hummus for their lunch. My chick peas were all there, however, the power was out, so I had to hand mash it. I hope it tastes ok.

And now I am off. Only on for one shift and now a break. I guess that's good. I am thankful things are going better than I expected, though I still feel a lack of communication between me and Barry, the housefather. But I'm pretty sure it is all in my head, since I can be a control freak at times of major change. I look forward to getting to know and being there to love on all 7 boys who moved into the house and the 2 new ones coming today. I hope to share stories and insights and lessons learned as I grow in my new position of housemother at a therapeutic boarding school.

*names have been and will be changed to protect the staff and students involved.

When tragedy comes

My first concert was on Feb 2, 1997 (I'm pretty sure). I went to see Steven Curtis Chapman, along with Audio Adrenaline and Caroline Aarons. I loved SCC's music. He has been the longest standing favorite of mine.

I don't have time to search for details of the tragedy in his life in May, but here he is on Larry King Live. I have yet to finish it all (slow internet), but I have to say, I still really like SCC and family (not the most eloquence, but still good).

EDIT: I found the whole thing on youtube here.

I'm a nerd OR my feelings about my new position

I was trying to think of a good way to communicate my feelings about being a housemother (HM) this fall. Since they have changed and continue to change, the first thing in my mind was a mathematical equation and graph. However, I didn't want to sit and try to make an equation to clearly communicate it, so I just went about drawing a graph. Here is what I came up with. I know the bottom scale is not consistent, but it would be too wide if it was.

Explanation of a few points:

• January is when I came down here. I was excited since I was just hired as a housemom, but was going to in education until they had an opening. That excitement quickly decreased when I realized I would not be in a house for some time (it probably dropped faster than on the graph)
• Mid July I found out that the main plan in the fall was to have me in a house. I probably had two days of high excitement before settling down and waiting for details and the fall to come closer so I could be surer.
• At the beginning of August, the summer semester ended and I moved to the HM position, which was (and is right now) training. My excitement has continued to grow steady as the fall comes.
• However, as training continues and the move-in date approaches (Aug 12), I am getting stressed. A few things that are concerns are my menu, shopping, and the house getting cleaned and ready in time for me to get set up before the students move in.

Wow, this has just made me even more stressed and slightly depressed. Dear God, please let everything go as smoothly as possible, even though few things work that way here. You know I can't handle things if they get crazier; I will break.

Legal Driving

I am proud to say that as of Friday, I am now a legal driver on the roads in the Dominican Republic. And, what you ask, is required for this? (ok, you may not ask, but I want to share).

Let's take the easy one first: driver. I purchased my 1992 225 Yamaha Serow at the beginning of June from a staff member who was leaving. He gave me one lesson before he left and I went from there.

Now onto the legal part. According to a motorcycle policy with work, I always have to wear a helmet on a motorbike on campus. No problem. As of July 26th, Dominican law now requires all motorbike riders to have a helmet. It has been interesting to see them as this new law comes into action with those on the road. You used to be able to distinguish Americans (or Canadians) in missions here by the fact that they were wearing helmets on their bikes. Dominicans are now wearing them, though theirs are generally more like baseball helmets or old-school helmets (I think of Ralph from The Mouse and the Motorcycle) while our helmets are DOT approved.

The new law also requires drives to always have their matricula, or title, and insurance. Thank goodness the title got passed on to me. As for the insurance, I went on Friday to purchase it. With 300 pesos (about $10), my US drivers license, and about 5 mis, I had insurance. Now "that was easy"!

And as an extra, I got a new battery on my bike, so I now have lights to drive at night and can honk when I pass people on the road. It is so nice to have a pair of wheels here.